She was a wallflower
by ShinakaStar
Summary: AU She had been sitting on the swings and he had been standing by the fence. Thus their story unfolded. JouAnzu JouMai SetoAnzu Part Three: A conversation and Jounouchi scales a fence.
1. Prologue: She tries

Title: She was a wallflower

Pairing: JouAnzu, JouMai, SetoAnzu

Summary: Letters from a desperate girl.

Notes: The plotbunny's been there for a while, just never really acted on it. Keep in mind however that story is an **A/U** and thus some of the ages and the timeline have been screwed with. The following chapters will make that more clear.

**Revised on 6/16/06 for minor things.**

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**She was a wallflower**

**Prologue**: She tries

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Dear Jounouchi Katsuya,

_I have been your secret admirer for the last few months. Please meet me on the school roof tomorrow morning _

Dear Jounouchi-senpai,

_Ano, this is really hard for me to write, but I really, **really **l_

The sound of paper ripping and she stared at a new blank page.

_Dear Jounouchi-senpai,_

_We've been friends for a year now. I have loved you from the fifth month_

_Dear Katsuya,_

_Mai is not the right girl for you, **I** am, and so **please** don't go out with her anymore, I am better for you, I won't break your heart all the time_

The pen trembled in her hand. The pad was adorned in purple ink splotches from all the shaking, and she clapped her hand over the shaking ballpoint so she wouldn't waste any more paper. Another try. The perfect letter couldn't be so many perfect words away.

_Daer_

_... _

Dear Jounouchi-senpai,

_The sun was shining in your hair when I knew I was in love in you._

_I will describe the day so that you can understand why I fell in love that moment. This is really hard for me to write, so **please**, bear with me…_

_We were walking on the streets then. You wanted to go into a bakery and buy some cake for us, the cakes there were so **good** and soft and sweet. I chose a table outside and we sat there, forks cutting through strawberry shortcake (mine) and chocolate fudge (yours), while we talked about the people around us having cake. Parents and children, lonely old women, and couples our age. You said, "A girlfriend would be nice to take here, we'll eat from each other's plates," and then you took my strawberry and put it in your mouth. _

_The strawberry was the best part of the cake. And you were eating it, chewing it and making "hmm" noises. I was mad, remember? _

_So you ordered another cake. "No worries, today was pay day. Have all the cake you want, Anzu-chan. I don't have a girlfriend yet so I can do whatever I want."_

_Your voice was dreamy while I ate the new strawberry. "She would be hot. While she's eating the strawberry, she'll nibble on it like a mouse and I'll whisper things in her ear. Take the fork she's eating with and kiss it and she'll know what I mean and kiss me. Her lips will taste like cake."_

_I stared at you. I have never heard this side of you before, this side that longed for shared intimacy. _

_Before that day, people had called us a couple. Whenever that happened you denied it so much that I found the possibility of **us** so unthinkable. _

_You were my first friend. I was so happy at just that. _

_Then there was the small table between us and our plates of cake almost clinking against one another whenever we pushed our forks into the cream. There were boys with girls, boys with boys, and girls with girls around us on all sides, sharing indirect kisses when they ate cake from the same plate or sipped from the same cup of iced coffee._

_The clouds parted in the sky to let the sun through then when I was thinking that. _

_And you were glowing for only me to see, I think._

_That's how I fell in love with you._

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A/N: Please review! QuickEdit is teh awful. It keeps eating up my spaces. I liked the old system better (prior to 2003 or something). 


	2. One: He meets her

Title: She was a wallflower

Pairings: JouAnzu, JouMai, SetoAnzu

Summary: Jounouchi and the beginning

Notes: Now the story truly begins here. This and the following chapters will recount how Jounouchi and Anzu met, the growth of their friendship, when Jounouchi and Mai started dating, up to the point when Anzu writes her letters. That will be the first arc. The second arc will contain SetoAnzu and skip a few years into the future. However, the story will always be a JouAnzu first and foremost.

This story beings at the point when Jounouchi and Honda are still delinquents and have yet to meet Yuugi, Ryou, and Kaiba. They're roughly 15-16 years old.

And 1 million yen **is** equivalent to $1000 US dollars, right?

If you see **(She was a wallflower)** that means scene change! 

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**She was a wallflower**

**Chapter One: **He meets her

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Everybody was surprised when Jounouchi Katsuya – a delinquent right down to the undershirt hanging out of his uniform and his scabbed fists – walked up to the front of the class with his presentation tucked sloppily under his arm. 

His voice was in low feral tones throughout the five minutes Orimoto-sensei gave him, and some of the boys gulped when he directed his face to them – the face that had preceded bloody noses, broken limbs and even as the rumor went, **comas** – but no damage was done in the end. Jounouchi walked back to his seat in the rear of the room and slumped into his chair.

The fact that Jounouchi had actually **done** **his homework** scared the class but there were other presentations to listen to, sleep through, and to cram last minute for exams in the following classes. After school the gossip would start flying and the groups devoted entirely to erasing Jounouchi's existence would get to work trying to manipulate this latest revelation to get him expelled. But for now, the subject of Jounouchi was left alone though questions gnawed at their minds: _Why is he doing this? What does he hope to gain from this when it's almost the end of the year and grades are being handed in next month? Does he actually think he can **pass** on to next year like this?_

The blond slept through the rest of the class as expected. _Ah_, everybody seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when Orimoto-sensei went out of the room at the ring of the first bell and they turned their heads to look at him. _Hell hasn't frozen over yet. Jounouchi's still the same hopeless case. Just wanted to surprise us a bit, that's all._

They laughed meekly to themselves at first, then the laughter grew stronger, crueler. _He's going to be the 30-year old delinquent in the back of the class years from now. He's never going to advance!_ _Why doesn't he just drop out already? Stupid worthless Jounouchi._

Sakuya-sensei had never liked Jounouchi, so when she entered the room considerably disheveled from climbing the stairs, she rapped her ruler against his back and ripped up his homework, five problems out of forty only finished on the scribble-filled sheet.

Girls and boys settled into their desks, smug and pleased that the world hadn't changed after all.

**(She was a wallflower) **

Jounouchi's presentation had been on society's treatment of abused and neglected children. Two days later when Orimoto-sensei got around to grading the projects, she marveled at the amount of statistics he had framed with orange construction border and at his scrawled conclusion on the bottom of the board:

Society doesn't recognize that these children – no matter how goddamn screwed-up or crappy their lives were when they were young – can become productive citizens (whatever you call them) just like normal kids when they grow up. Hell, some normal kids grow up to be murderers and rapists, you know. Doesn't mean you give up like that on those other kids who don't have parents or got beaten up by them or by some sibling or relative.

Just give them a **freaking chance **first.

**(She was a wallflower) **

Jounouchi took out the death threats, the scraps of worksheets and the challenge letters to find his shoes in a corner of the locker. He pulled them out and studied them. They looked fine. Must be the gum he stuck on the heels and the soles – nobody wanted to touch sticky balls of spit and stretchy sugar after all in order to cut holes in his shoes. Wasn't really worth it. Peeling off the pink wads, the boy slipped them on and walked out of the hallway.

"Yo, Jounouchi!"

He ran over to the curb. Honda sat on a motorcycle outside the entrance, admiring the girls' skirts.

"Got it fixed?" Jounouchi slid his fingers over the slick red surface. "Wasn't red before."

Honda shrugged. "Stole it from some guy named Ushio who tried to get me the other day. Didn't take care of it properly." There was a rag in his pocket and he ran it over the spot Jounouchi's hand had been. "Was all caked with dirt and grass until I got the hose and cleaned it off. Watch where you're touching man. You'll make it all oily and shit."

He laughed. "Jeez, you treat this ride as if it's Nozaka herself."

"Miho-chan! The most wonderful girl to set foot in this crap school! Did you see her today?"

His friend's face flushed red like the motorcycle and Jounouchi thought he saw a box of Godiva in another pocket of his trenchcoat – with white ribbons and a small card probably filled with mushy sweet nothings underneath the frilly bow. He punched Honda in the shoulder.

"I don't get how **you** got a girlfriend when you cut more class than me! What the hell's that about? And no, didn't see her today."

Honda wilted and Jounouchi thought about how Miho had made him all soft. Men didn't wilt like tulips – they were weeds. Whack them and spray them with herbicide all you wanted and they kept growing back stronger than ever to infest every last bit of garden.

But a woman was more potent than herbicide and Jounouchi wanted to taste some of that essence, see if it was worth dying for. Honda groaned and said, "Get on," without answering Jounouchi's first question and when he was in this mood, the blond knew he wouldn't get an answer until he either snapped out of it himself or when Miho popped out of nowhere to accept his chocolates.

"Is she sick? Did you hear anybody say she's sick?"

"I don't know!" Jounouchi yelled above the deafening rev of the engine.

"I'll buy her a get-well card! And maybe some flowers? Let's go to the mall first!"

"But **Shizuka's **visiting today - "

The motorcycle was already rolling down across Domino with Jounouchi clinging to Honda's back and the blond hoped that the trip would be quick because he needed Honda to drive him over to the station to pick his sister up.

Miho. God, Honda was so lucky.

**(She was a wallflower) **

Jounouchi stared across the table in the restaurant to his sister and mother.

"How have you've been doing, nii-chan?" Shizuka's long chestnut hair was combed and fell in straight tendrils across her shoulders. Her uniform must have been ironed and pressed the night before, no crease or wrinkle marred his sister's perfect image. He looked into her eyes – gray and blue mixing together into the scene of the ocean's waves washing over rocks.

And there was his mother. Sitting next to his sister.

"I'm fine." His mother being there made his words came out quiet and weak. "I got a promotion at my job. The next time you come I can buy you something like a – like a dress or s-something like that. Are your eyes better?"

She shook her head and even then her hair remained perfect, the uniform white and spin-and-span, and her hands folded before her on the table's surface. Jounouchi was wearing green instead of the usual blue Domino uniform, had on ratty sneakers with bits of gum leftover on the heels and there was a stain on his untucked white undershirt. He was a long way from being prim and pure like her.

"If it wasn't for your hair, I wouldn't be looking at you right now. Maybe at some stranger." Shizuka smiled gently at him.

Jounouchi thought, 'I **am** a stranger to you. This is the first time we've seen each other for a year.'

But outside, he faked a chuckle and leaned closer to her, pretending not to see his mother draw Shizuka away when he closed the distance between them. "Well, guess that's the only thing from otou-san I'm grateful for. Hair the color of straw." He felt a vengeful sweetness when he saw the woman clutching his sister recoil at the mention of his father - the subject was still like walking over thin eggshells for her and he was glad.

Shizuka didn't know whether to laugh along with him so she changed the subject to school, asking him if he was doing well and if he made any new friends. As the two traded small talk, Jounouchi's resentment of his mother rose until anger frothed over the edges of his being and he clenched his fists beneath the table. _You couldn't stand me so you make Shizuka take over for you. Make her ask all these **questions**. She's my sister! She's not supposed to be my mom for you, you goddamn **bitch**. So what if I look like him? Looks don't mean anything! _

When the conversation hit a lull, Jounouchi turned to his mother who tried to feign interest in her tea when his eyes scouted her out.

"So okaa-san. How have **you've** been doing? Job treating you good?"

Shizuka was like a barrier for her against him. His mother pressed herself against her arm now and whispered back, "It's going well. Katsuya." She added his name as an afterthought; Jounouchi was only checked by the presence of his sister and everybody else in the restaurant not to hit her hard across the face.

"So you still can't afford Shizuka's surgery? After **seven** years, okaa-san?"

He was a fountain gone wrong, spouting a hot steam of hatred. Shizuka whimpered in her chair and **she **– detestable creature, his **mother** – dug her nails into his sister's arm and murmured, "No."

"Huh. Are you sure you really care about Shizuka? 3 million yen shouldn't be too hard to get with a salary like yours. I'm living with otou-san who always get tax collectors at his door and I still managed to save up at least a million yen in the last few years."

There were crocodile tears cascading down his mother's face. Though Shizuka couldn't see well, she must had felt the pinpricks of wetness on her sleeve in order to say, "Stop, onii-chan, she's **trying**!" and for her hand to grope around the table for a napkin to give to the woman. Jounouchi was as passive as brick.

Then his mother had to say something back to him to crush his victory over her.

"Thank you." She sniffled into the napkin. "Thank you…"

He was long past caring about causing a scene. His chair fell over as he pushed it away and he ran out of the restaurant wondering if Shizuka caught his hair moving away from her field of vision.

Wondering if his mother enjoyed screwing with him so much.

**(She was a wallflower) **

Jounouchi came upon an empty park, panting and chest heaving for breath. Sweat beaded on his forehead and neck, and he fanned himself with his hand while looking around for a water fountain.

The sun was drowning in pinks, oranges, and reds and Jounouchi wanted to die along with it. Goddamn **mother**. She always managed to get under his skin and make him feel like the most worthless piece of shit under the sky in front of Shizuka.

He sighted the water fountain next to the blue jungle gym and he walked over there slowly, studying the park all around. Basketball court next block down. Fences barricading the baseball field from the track field from the jungle gym. Seemed like the park was owned by a nearby school. The tall black ugly things were everywhere keeping kids in that one space and in that one other space, never letting them mingle together.

Jounouchi knew the park would be a huge mess of kids and playing equipment if the fences were put down, but they made him think of him and Shizuka on separate sides of a fence he labeled "mother" and he kicked one facing the water fountain before taking a drink.

When he was in the middle of splashing his burning face with water, he thought he heard a _creak_ of wood bending and the _clatter_ of chains untangling. Just as suddenly as the sounds came, they left, and Jounouchi thought he was going crazy. Who else was it but his mother's fault for making him imagine things? That was how much she unwound him.

Seven years ever since the divorce and Shizuka's eyes still weren't any better now. She was his dearest sister – his only sister – and how dare **his mother** deny her the sight of faces, the beach, and all the beautiful colors of the world. If he was going to get the other two million yen, he was going to work his ass off because wouldn't it be worth it to see Shizuka experience an actual sunset and not the faded version through her weak eyes for the first time in so long?

Jounouchi sighed into a fence.

And did a double take.

This fence separated the jungle gym from the swings and the sandbox. On the second swing from his left, he saw a girl sitting on the wooden seat, hands clutching the chains, legs crossed at the ankle, looking at him. She couldn't be older than thirteen, and he recognized her uniform to be from Domino Intermediate.

She said with a smile, "Isn't it a bit late for the two of us to be here," and laughed. From her lips it came out hollow.

Jounouchi looked back at her, breathing in surprise. He let it out, then answered:

"Yeah. It is late."

Their laughter melded like ice and broken bells and both appreciated the emptiness of the sound.

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A/N: Please review! Like I said before QuickEdit sucks. More on Jounouchi and Anzu next chapter. 


	3. Two: She meets him

Title: She was a wallflower

Pairing: JouAnzu, JouMai, SetoAnzu

Summary: Anzu, a notebook, and the resulting snark!fest.

Notes: Last chapter was chock-full of cultural references I forgot to clarify so here they are:

(1) In Japan, students typically have to change into slippers to wear in school and so they have lockers for the purpose of putting their outdoors shoes in. Some common pranks are to take out the target's shoes (the lockers don't have locks) and cut holes in them a la Hana Yori Dango a.k.a. Boys Over Flowers a.k.a. Meteor Garden.

(2) In Japan also, students don't move from class to class; the teachers do. Hence Orimoto-sensei, at the end of the period, went out to be replaced by Sakuya-sensei.

(3) Miho is the girl with a yellow ribbon in her purple hair in Season One (or Zero) of Yuugiou. Honda had a crush on her in that show.

(4) On Jounouchi's back-story: when he was young, his parents divorced with his mother taking Shizuka and he going to his father. Jounouchi's father is revealed in the manga to be an abusive drunk. One of the conjectures online on why his mother didn't take Jounouchi was because she was afraid he would turn out like his dad. I included that in here plus my addition that Jounouchi resembles his father to make his mother's fear more substantial.

(5) Students coming from different schools or from another level of education (say, middle school vs. high school) are distinguished by their uniforms, which is why Jounouchi recognizes Anzu as a middle school student in their meeting.

Okay, if I got anything wrong, please tell me! I want to be as accurate as possible! And please review!

Also for this chapter:

(6) "First-year" in middle school is equivalent to 6th grade, or the first year of middle school.

(7) 100 yen equals a US dollar in this story though in reality, it is equivalent to around 90 cents. But let's not make things complicated.

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She was a wallflower **

**Chapter Two**: She meets him

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_Dear Diary That was Given to Me by Fujioka-san on Thursday,_

_Well. _

_What am I supposed to do with this?_

_**Wait** – I can doodle in the margins…_

_(All over the page were drawn purple hearts splitting in two. On the line preceding the entry's last sentence, she had also drawn a snoring stick figure. The Zs' were quite large.)_

…_This is boring._

_Mazaki Anzu, end day one_

**(Segue)**

_Dear Diary/Journal/Book to Vent Thoughts into,_

_I asked Fujioka-san about the notebook today and she answered "Well, Mazaki-san, whenever you find you have problems you want to discuss with me but I'm not there, you can write them in this notebook." I said, "Wait, isn't it **your** job to help me?" and she did that thing when her eyebrows came together and her lips became one thin line. "Mazaki-san, this is only a supplement to our sessions. It will not replace the guidance I give you." Uh-huh. If I need a notebook to help solve my "problems" as okaa-san put it, I could just buy one for less than 70 yen in the corner store instead of paying up 10000 yen for an hour and a half with Fujioka-san every Monday and Thursday. We do not **ooze** money, you know._

_At least she gave a nice purple pen along with this. _

_Mazaki Anzu, end day two_

**(Segue)**

_Dear Supplement to Fujioka-san's Therapy Sessions,_

_I don't see Fujioka-san until Thursday so I have to stew over my "issues" by myself. I might as well "**reevaluate**" (Fujioka-san loves this word to death XD) my problems here and see if I reach any new conclusions about myself._

_What okaa-san said: I am a social misfit. I do not socialize with people at all. I don't try to fit in with them and they don't seem to want **me** to fit in with them. She thinks it has something to do with me._

_Interesting. Okaa-san actually took some time off her so-called "busy" schedule just so she could accuse me of having "serious issues." What okaa-san needs to do is stop listening to American 70s' music. Though I do like the song Dancing Queen… (Is that from the 70s'? I'm not really sure.)_

_Moving on._

_What otou-san said: I have self-esteem issues. I am too shy for my own good so I need to open up more. Experience life **to the max**. And yes, he blames the problem on me, too._

_Otou-san. Stop it with the American 90s' car slogans, **please**. You're only slightly better than okaa-san with the phrasing. _

_So. _

_I laid it all out for you, journal (I'm referring to a notebook as if it's a person or something, lol). Work your wonderful magic and correct me._

_I'm waiting…_

_Still waiting…_

_Getting impatient here…_

_Forget it. This is pointless. Why am I doing this anyway?_

_Mazaki Anzu, end day three_

**(Segue)**

_Dear Therapy Journal,_

_I just turned thirteen a few days ago on August 18th. According to Fujioka-san, birthdays are great days for reflection and why aren't I using the notebook **more** (she checks it like homework – isn't that an invasion of privacy?). But I don't really want to see her glare again so I might as well write something (yes, Fujioka-san, you **are** one scary old woman)._

_As per otou-san's orders I asked my classmates if they wanted to go to my birthday party. These were some of their reactions:_

_"Who are you?"_

_"A-Ah, I have to, er, do the laundry that day! Yeah, my house is filled with dirty clothes! Need to wash them all, heh. Sorry."_

_A group of girls stared me down and turned away._

_The jocks all shouted "NO!" at me as a unit._

_Bakura-kun, the only nice person in the class, said that his archaeologist father was coming home that day from Egypt and that they were going to go the amusement park. Having been to his house before for a group project (every wall was filled with some sort of ancient artifact), I believed him._

_When I reported all this to otou-san he looked at me weirdly and said, "What kind of vibes **are** you giving out?"_

_XD Okaa-san has gotten to him at last._

_So I celebrated my birthday with my parents. Just like every year. _

_Reflection: I am a girl who repels people. And I am filled with evil vibes._

_Mazaki Anzu, end day seven _

_P.S. The way I end my entries is that I count the days from when I first wrote in the notebook. I skipped days four to six and I wrote today, making it day seven. _

_**Why** am I writing this…?_

**(Segue)**

_Dear Diary (Fujioka-san says my dears don't have to be so "elaborate" and **detailed**, but it's fun),_

_I'm writing this at school. It's recess now and nobody uses the swings anymore so I guess I'm safe from nosy people. _

_I look up every now and then to look at everybody else. Some girls are holding a private meeting or something in the jungle gym and have even posted guards to look out for intruders. (Jeez, I'm looking at the makings of a cult.) The soccer field is filled with sweaty boys running around. A basketball rattles into one of their fences and the soccer boys are now yelling at the basketball boys. (What happened to all the girls? Oh yeah, jungle gym meeting.)_

_I realize I'm a prime suspect for bullying just for being anywhere near the swings. A first-year became an outcast just for accidentally wandering in here. Apparently, once you get to middle school the swings immediately become "baby" things. I don't see why the same logic isn't applied to the jungle gym but I guess the spaces inside it has made it popular for junior cult meetings and making out. Which are definitely adult uses._

_And as I'm sitting here, scribbling into this notebook, I also make some other realizations._

_One: I haven't been busted yet for being near the swings even though I've been here for at least almost half the period._

_Two: The journal writing hasn't got anybody staring at me in wonder though it should._

_Three: Okaa-san had forgotten my bento again._

_In short…_

_**Nobody cares about me**._

_Mazaki Anzu, end day twelve_

**(Segue)**

_Dear Stupid Piece of Crap that is Making My Life Miserable even though I'm still writing in it,_

_I am a wallflower._

_It's not anything I'm doing, or even the things I'm not doing. I fade into the background like a ghost and I just stay there._

_I think I've always known this. I look at my behavior and the things I'm doing and I know I'm not being mean or anything – anything but that – and I pick up things for people when they drop them, say my thank yous and you welcomes, take part in things during recess – I was actually in one of the cult meetings one time, you know – just to be **noticed**. _

_But I tried to deny it. Because, isn't it sad when you're lonely not through any fault of yours but because you're just plain forgettable to people?_

_And stupid me had to open up a can of worms by "reevaluating my problems" and getting introspective in this notebook._

_I blame Fujioka-san._

_Mazaki Anzu, end day fifteen_

_P.S. When Fujioka-san read the last entry, she clapped me on the back for having made an important **revelation** about myself. **Great**._

**(Segue)**

_Dear Notebook of a Wallflower,_

_Okaa-san and otou-san left on their "**honeymoon of renewal**." They didn't even tell me about it – just scribbled a few things on a post-it note and stuck it on the refrigerator door. They didn't even say when they'd get back and this is already their **fifth** honeymoon renewal thing. And okaa-san forgot to make my bento. **Again**._

_At least otou-san was thoughtful enough to leave me an emergency credit card this time. Last time – the third honeymoon, I think – they didn't leave any money behind and I had to go through their bedroom to find money for food. And guess where the money was: under okaa-san's "toys" in the drawer. Ugh. _

_I have to be really pathetic if even my parents forget I exist sometimes. _

_But they're good people. **Really**. After all, they wouldn't have sent me to the therapist if they didn't care, right?_

…_I'm not convincing myself at all._

_Mazaki Anzu, end day twenty_

_P.S. Won't be seeing Fujioka-san for a while. She only accepts cash. It was nice talking to her, too. Should I continue writing in this even then?_

…_**Nah**._

**(She was a wallflower)**

She normally didn't stay after school but she did, helping the one janitor in the school scrub down the first floor after some of the first-years had thrown food at each other during a fight. Some of the drink spilled had been milk so she had to hold her nose from the smell of it going bad and the janitor accidentally splashed water onto her socks at one point; said it was because he didn't notice her spraying down the window right in front of him.

Anzu was already used to those kinds of comments so she let him slide. Anyway, the old janitor was the closest to kind Ryou she could get. Though even Ryou turned distant these days after his father had given him the strange golden ring that now adorned his neck. Sometimes she suspected he grew bat's wings on his crown of soft white hair when nobody was looking, but that was crazy.

It was six and her arms were sore from wringing the washcloth one too many times. Pushing open the large front doors, Anzu was immediately bathed in sunset. On a whim, she took out her arm and tried to keep track of the gradations of pinks into oranges into reds into pinks on her sleeve but got dizzy after a while. She skipped the stairs down onto the pavement, then ran around the back to the park.

_"Honey! Otou-san and I are going to the Bahamas for our fifth honeymoon of renewal! I know that you're a responsible daughter from all the other honeymoons so just do what you usually do when we're not around. Otou-san also left you a credit card for food, so yeah. Well, bye darling!"_

Anzu remembered a manga where the heroine called herself a super-weed, proclaiming that not even herbicide could get her down. She didn't know why she was thinking **this** right now, but wouldn't it be nice if she could be compared to a garden nuisance? Especially when she was sick of the dark lonely spaces in the house when she got home from school and the annoying ding of the front door bell that signaled the arrival of the local take-out boy with her oily dinner. A lot of people would kill to be in her position – no parents, **cool**, party your ass off – but the silences made her want to cry. A super-weed didn't have the need to spray out water.

The seat of the swing squeaked beneath her and she shook the chains a bit to steady herself. So she'll be home late – who was there to care?

Then Anzu blinked.

His head was squashed against the fence that separated jungle gym from swings. His shirt was untucked and she didn't remember any high school in Domino that ever issued green uniforms. He had messy blond hair. A delinquent-looking character.

But whatever. This was a nice break from the mundane.

"Isn't it a bit late for the two of us to be here?"

When he laughed along with her, something bubbled and broke within Anzu. The delinquent understood where she was coming from after all.

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A/N: Please review! I am aware that this fic is quite different from your normal romance (and my expositions **are** quite boring), but please bear with me. And yes, I am going through the original Yuugiou story line from the **very beginning** so you'll see this universe's version of the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs, which I hope – when you guys get up to them – will be very interesting. And let me say this again: please review! It does a fanfiction writer a lot of good i.e. inspire her to write more chapters!

.: ShinakaStar :.


	4. Three: They talk

Title: She was a wallflower

Pairing: JouAnzu, JouMai, SetoAnzu (will end in JOUANZU!)

Summary: A conversation and Jounouchi scales a fence.

Notes: Here are a few things to throw out to you guys:

(1) I'm following manga-verse in how Gozaburo died. However, since I haven't read the manga in quite a while, I may be off with several details.

(2) Anzu means "apricot" in Japanese though I guess a lot of people know this already.

(3) Jounouchi literally means, "castle of/from inside," depending on how it's written. Anzu makes a dig based on this.

(4) Getting into a good middle school/high school/college etc. in Japan is accomplished through scoring well on difficult entrance exams. Many kids go to cram school – sort of like prep classes – in addition to regular school in order to prepare for these exams. (Think SAT.)

(5) Anzu, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, surprises everybody when she translates Pegasus' diary, which was originally written in English. For the last chapter and for this one, too, I explained that away by stating that her parents once lived in the US and through insinuating that they must have transferred some of their learning of the language to her.

(6)_ Ano_ can be translated as "uh…" or something of the like.

(7)_ Kami_ can be loosely translated as "God".

**Edited 1/26/08.**

* * *

_.:a slice of life elsewhere:._

_For that year, it was the biggest thing on the news: "Kaiba Gozaburo commits suicide and leaves KaibaCorp to adopted heir Kaiba Seto!" The whole incident seemed the stuff of movies rather than real life. But there were too many witnesses to dismiss it as fiction – from the pedestrians crossing the street below the iconic KaibaCorp building to the company's bigwigs who had attended the ill-fated board meeting on the sixty-eight floor – and people could only shake their heads in disbelief as they watched the amateur video of the fall over and over again on the news._

_This was the question that ran through their heads: "Why did Kaiba Gozaburo – CEO of one of the most wealthiest corporations in Japan – jumped out that day?"_

_There was an investigation, of course. The police interrogated the board executives, the ones who had been nearest to Gozaburo at the time. The full story came out reluctantly, but steadily over time as public scrutiny and plunging stock prices forced them to reveal all the lurid details concerning the mysterious suicide._

_So why __**did**__ Kaiba Gozaburo jumped?_

_A draft of the police report typed up by an assistant told the following:_

'_On April 21st, CEO Kaiba Gozaburo was leading a conference when Kaiba Seto and Kaiba Mokuba walked into the room._

_For several months, most of KaibaCorp's board members had been working closely with Kaiba Seto to overturn Kaiba Gozaburo's position as CEO. Apparently, Kaiba Gozaburo had made a bet with Kaiba Seto a year ago in which he was given ten million yen and asked to make ten times that amount with it in within a month. Kaiba Seto accomplished this feat in within a week. The next challenge concerned ownership of KaibaCorp itself; if Kaiba Seto could find a way to oust Kaiba Gozaburo from power in a year, Kaiba Seto would become the next CEO._

_Kaiba Seto quickly figured out that this method would mean obtaining fifty-one percent of KaibaCorp's stock. For five months, Kaiba Seto worked hard to gain the favor of the company's board members. Many of them came over to his side, long frustrated with Kaiba Gozaburo's authoritarian rule over KaibaCorp. They gave him their shares of stock and before long, Kaiba Seto had the amount required to effectively control the corporation._

_Thus when Kaiba Seto and Kaiba Mokuba walked in on the meeting, the board executives took this as a sign to officially pledge their loyalty to Kaiba Seto in front of Kaiba Gozaburo._

_These were the actions the majority of those interviewed agreed occurred immediately following their entrance:_

_Kaiba Seto said, "I win. I effectively own KaibaCorp. __**I**__ will be in control from now on." The board members nodded their agreement._

_CEO Kaiba Gozaburo leaned forward in his chair. Most of the board members reported that he was smiling "like a madman" at that particular moment. A few added, "He was probably insane the whole time."_

_"__**Really**__, Seto?" Kaiba Gozaburo stood up._

_"Exactly what I mean. __**I**__ am the CEO from now on. __**I **__control the ropes here. You will be disposed in favor of __**my**__ ascendance,__** Gozaburo**__."_

_"All those lessons over the years since I adopted you…You're finally getting them. __Bravo__, Seto!" And Kaiba Gozaburo clapped._

_Kaiba Seto sneered. "In this case, one might say the student has far surpassed the teacher. __**In every way**__."_

_"True, true, Seto," Kaiba Gozaburo continued, "This old man has begun to run out of tricks. But – "_

_Kaiba Gozaburo was suddenly standing by the north window._

_" – If you think I'm going to leave like a dog… You're wrong,__** son**__."_

_The board members remembered sun shimmering on the window before it shattered into many pieces, big and small. They remembered running over to the hole left by the space of Kaiba Gozaburo's body and then jumping away in fright when jagged plates of glass fell from above. They remembered seeing – through the glare of sunlight from the nearby windows of buildings, from the hoods of cars on highways, from the white sidewalks with people milling around on – a speck of black and red directly below their feet. Black for the suit's color and red for Kaiba Gozaburo's blood._

_Kaiba Seto did not look at Kaiba Gozaburo's corpse with them._

_Instead Kaiba Seto took the seat that Kaiba Gozaburo had just vacated minutes before._

_Thus this concludes the investigation of the Domino Police into the cause of Kaiba Gozaburo's suicide. '_

_When the commissioner read the draft, she complained that it was "too wordy" and "read more like a tabloid magazine article than a formal police report." The assistant was asked to retype the report._

'_But no matter,' the assistant thought to himself when he left the office at eight. 'It sounds a lot better than any other report I'm going to write up in my lifetime.'_

* * *

**She was a wallflower**

**Chapter Three**: They talk

* * *

_  
And then, there was dialogue_. 

"Name's Jounouchi."

"Mazaki Anzu."

"Eat apricots?"

"Obsessed with the feudal era much? Castles aren't needed anymore."

"Ouch. Thirteen, right?"

"That obvious? I turned thirteen a few weeks ago. August 18th."

"Heh, gonna be sixteen in a few months. You're gonna wear the Domino High uniform next year?"

"Probably. I'm just an average student. I don't even go to cram school."

"Me neither. Don't have the time for it. Barely passed the entrance exam, you know."

"You looked like it."

"Is the delinquent thing so noticeable?"

"From your hair to your shoes… You look every bit the delinquent that sits in the back of the class in teen movies."

"Ha, don't know whether to get angry or start laughing with you again… Anzu, right? I could call you Anzu?"

"I…"

"Huh?"

"It's kind of – kind of…"

"Hey, you okay – "

" – Y-Yeah, it's fine…"

"You're shocked. I can just call you 'Mazaki-san' or something. But why be so formal? 'Anzu' sounds a hell lot better."

"N-No, just taken aback there. Not many people call me by that. I'll just say 'Jounouchi-senpai' since you **are** older than me. And calling a guy by his first name must be embarrassing."

"Damn straight. Always hated my name anyway. My mom named me that from some baby magazine. Kami, my **mother**… And why put the '-senpai' there, just call me 'Jounouchi.'"

"Oh, come on, I always wanted a senpai of my own! And you seem like a nice delinquent. Humor me please."

"Ha, got to be kidding me there. Me, **nice**? Wanna know how many people I beat up every week? I could be going for you next, you know?"

"You won't. You're a big old softie underneath, I can tell. Besides, even if I'm wrong, you got to go to the other side of the park to get me, Jounouchi-**senpai**."

"Sheesh, makes me feel like I got to be a great role model or mentor for you or something. And who says I'm gonna go walk to you, Anzu?"

"What other way is there to get me? Unless you're a delinquent who thinks he's 'Superman'?"

"'Superman'? Wow, your English sounds like an American's."

"Yeah, what about it? My parents used to live in the States."

"Ah, I see. Say something else in English."

"Ano… 'I want to be a dancer.'"

"Damn, that was pretty nice. You could be a translator for those foreigner businessmen. They can get you big money. What did you say?"

"…I want to be a dancer."

"What are you so nervous about? Is that supposed to be a secret or something?"

"No, no, I just… Never told it to anybody before. Not even Fujioka-san."

"Who?"

"…T-Therapist."

"Yeah, I should probably go see one, too."

"Are you being sarcastic? Having a therapist is **not** a funny thing!"

"Maybe therapy will make me not so screwed up…" Under his breath, he mutters, "And make me not wanna kill that **bitch** so much," a thought she barely catches but catches nonetheless.

"Hey…are you all right?"

"Yeah, it's just – **my mother**. She really gets on my nerves."

"She left you, didn't she?"

"Yeah – **how did you know**!"

"The tone of your voice. You already mentioned her a few times. And divorce is becoming a lot more common these days. I was guessing from that…"

"Well… You're really good, Anzu. Intuitive, is that the word? **You** should be the therapist instead."

"…That's **real** hilarious, Jounouchi-senpai."

"What's up with the bitterness? I meant that as a compliment!"

"…Didn't you say you were climbing the fence? I want to see you try that. If you can."

"Heh, I'm not one to back down from a challenge! I'm a delinquent, remember? And when I get over there, I'm gonna get you to tell me what the hell's bugging you."

"…"

"That's right, don't think I didn't notice you changing the topic like that all of the sudden. Okay, I'll put my foot here…"

"Is that a bet, Jounouchi-senpai?"

"Why not, Anzu? Besides, I don't feel like taking the long way to get to you. Too boring. And what if you run out on me? I just met you, after all."

"It's high, you know. What if you fall? You're going to get more than bruises and cuts. Not going to sue my family for being so stupid, are you?"

"I can handle this just fine… Look, almost halfway already!"

"How are you going to get down the other side? Anybody can climb up the thing! Going down's the hard part, **baka**! I was only kidding about the fence before!"

"Easy. I'll be like Superman and fly down to you. Besides, it's too late to go back on that challenge, Anzu, I'm already at the top…Hey, what are you getting up for – "

"So I could wave and cheer for you when you fly down to me. **No**! I'm getting up in a desperate attempt to dissuade you from doing this, Jounouchi-senpai! **Just stop right now**!"

"You're gonna try catching me when I fall?"

"If I have to – **yes**! I was just kidding, you know!"

"I'm going down, now… Not slipping into the air yet, am I?"

"No… But you are one **stupid** delinquent."

"Hey, Anzu! I'm gonna try jumping from here, it'll be faster getting down!"

"What'll be coming faster will be a **bloody**, **broken you**!"

"But you're catching me, right? You said so yourself before, Anzu."

"And – **Jounouchi-senpai**!"

**(She was a wallflower)**

Jounouchi had several bruises on his head from the fall, nothing too bad. Anzu made sure that everything but his head didn't touch the ground, so he guessed that he had her to thank for not breaking a bone or two somewhere. As for his head… Yeah, she probably did that to knock some sense into the hard stubborn thing. Kami knew he needed it sometimes.

Anzu ended up breaking her wrist catching him, though. The instant he heard the _pop!_ Jounouchi regretted making the jump. He had always been a good climber; he could have just picked his way down the chain links, but **no**, he wanted to try dropping through the air and landing _splat!_ on the ground.

(But the fact that Anzu kept her promise was kind of nice.)

She didn't seem to mind the injury at all, even when her wrist was blowing up and turning red and purple all over. When Jounouchi offered to pay for the hospital bill, she pushed his hands holding that week's wages away and held up her parent's credit card to be charged. No line of irritation ever warred with the smile on her face; no ounce of coldness ever came into her eyes sparkling azure. All she did was smirk while he gaped at the size of the blue-and-black bump showing through his bangs in the mirror and laugh at the absurdity of the whole scenario they were in, two teenagers in the hospital on a late Friday night where nearly everybody else their age were making out in cars or hanging out at home with a movie and popcorn.

Anzu was a really good person, Jounouchi concluded.

The blond thought that Anzu would go home after getting the cast on, but she said, "Nah, parents aren't home, I want to be out some more," and he agreed. He doubted his father would care if he got home late – Jounouchi was out nearly all the time – and besides, it was always alcohol, alcohol, and alcohol. A bottle of smelly crap was far more important than his son.

They sat on one of the benches outside Domino Hospital, the night hanging over them like a comfortable blanket.

"Let's meet again another time, Anzu," Jounouchi started. "I still feel guilty over your wrist… It's in a cast now. Got to suck, you know. Not being able to use it for a month."

"At least it wasn't my right hand, Jounouchi-senpai. **Then** I would get mad at you. I'm still able to do a lot of things even without it."

Anzu paused. He sensed a question brewing in her, waiting for voice to make it alive.

Her next words were in a whisper that he had to strain his ears to hear. "Another…**meeting**? With **me**? Do you really mean that?"

Jounouchi didn't know why she was suddenly so hesitant towards him, but he could tell that this was important to her and that **he better not screw this up**. Tonight he had the most fun he ever had in ages and he liked Anzu, the plucky thing. She was like the Shizuka he would have had fun with if only his mother hadn't been in the way. And it was refreshing to talk to someone else beside Honda for a change. The subject of Miho could only be discussed for so long.

So he reached into a pocket and took out a pen. And much to Anzu's surprise, Jounouchi grabbed hold of the arm with the broken wrist and began to write on the white surface of the cast.

"My number," he spoke when he was done. "And the days and times we could meet each other."

She stared at him hard. Her hand shook.

"Let's meet at the same place we met today. Tomorrow night good with you?"

Anzu's mouth struggled to form words; but only air puffed out, and she resorted to nodding her head _yes_.

"So tomorrow night," and Jounouchi's eyes were full of mischief then, "You're gonna tell me **why** you had to go to the therapist in the first place. Remember our bet?"

Anzu hit him hard on the shoulder with her good hand when he said that.

"You're** still** on that, Jounouchi-senpai?"

He smiled.

* * *

A/N: This chapter took me a while. I had to fix up Kaiba's lines and then add some more details so it didn't sound too choppy. But I'm pleased with the result over all. Jounouchi and Anzu finally have a real conversation with one another! XD Now, I just have to write Yuugi into the next chapter… 

PLEASE REVIEW! A review a day keeps the writer's block away!

.: ShinakaStar :.


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